Lauren is in search of a mature (but not too mature!) guy who loves hiking and exploring. John’s dream date is “beautiful and adaptable, passionate, loves God and exploring.” They were both a little nervous when they arrived at Acadiana, but the jitters didn’tlast long.

Lauren:I was pleasantly surprised. He has a lot of facial hair, which I think is cute, and he was taller, which I liked, too. [And] he had a big smile on his face.

John: She is a very pretty girl. My first reaction beyond that was that she has very big hair — like, poof city — which isn’t a problem in any way. I also noticed right away that she has very striking eyes.

Lauren: We sat down and just started chatting. He mentioned that he had just traveled to Ann Arbor; he’s looking at different law schools. I went to school in Ann Arbor, so we chatted for a really long time about the campus and the town.

John: It was a pretty natural conversation. We talked a little bit about the churches that we go to. She goes to one that is very similarly structured to the one that I go to.

(lucesp)

Lauren:I got the vibe that he was a family guy, and I definitely like somebody who is involved with his family. [And] we both really enjoy a good pun.

John: There were a number of commonalities, but there were a lot of things we were different about, too, like when we were going through the [Date Lab] favorites list, she likes some bands that I’ve never heard of, some boy pop. None of our favorites were totally incompatible.

Lauren: We were like, “I’m pretty sure our date-o-meter is going to be awful.”

John: It didn’t really matter. Our general dispositions would be a match in terms of how we were approaching each other, how we were approaching the date, how we were fluidly switching between topics.

Lauren: I’m a really bad flirt, so I was just trying to be nice and genuine, and I thought he was the same. For me it was nice that he didn’t make any advances, because I prefer for a guy to get to know me.

John: It was probably 10:30, and we decided we wanted to do something else. We walked down to Lucky Strike [to bowl], but it was packed. So, even though it was cold, we decided we’d go for a walk.

Lauren: He was telling me his friend has a thing on St. Patrick’s Day where they do the Irish heritage of storytelling.

John:This is probably my favorite part of the night. I said, “Tell me a story.” She was a little hesitant at first, so I started telling a story about a little bird that lived in an oak tree. One of us would tell the story for about three minutes, and the other would tell the story, and we just developed a very rich narrative about this bird. I think it shows a lot of creativity if someone can tell a story.

Lauren: At first I was like, Are we really doing this? I’ve never had a guy want to just make up a story, but it was really fun. It wasn’t, like, until 11:30 that I was like, “Okay, I’m cold.” We shared a cab and chatted a little more.

John: We exchanged numbers, and then when she left we hugged. I would have been happy to kiss her, but [the hug] came out fairly naturally. That was one uncertainty that I had later, whether I should have kissed her.

RATE THE DATE

Lauren: [I’d] give him a 4.5, because he’s leaving for law school and so it can’t really go anywhere — that’s the only downside.

John: I would [rate the date] about a 4. There’s a lot about Lauren that I’d like to get know more. I think the ball is in her court to see if she’d be willing to go after someone who is on a relatively short time frame. If it doesn’t work out, I understand.

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UPDATE: The two met up briefly the following day, and John handed over a package of gummy bears (which she loves). “It was sweet,” says Lauren, who bumped her date rating to a 5. John followed up his interview with an e-mail saying: “I don’t exactly remember how I characterized Lauren’s hair, but I hope it wasn’t negative in any way because that wasn’t my reaction.” And, yes, the two did manage a second date: dinner and drinks. “He’s fun to hang out with and talk to,” Lauren says. At press time, plans were in the works for date No. 3.

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